White collar

Missing

“No! Suit, I
swear I’m not crazy. I wouldn’t have called if I didn’t have another choice.” For
a minute, Peter’s world stood still. He lost his breath.

“Where are you?”

“Paris, you
should come here.”

“Paris? Mozzie,
I…I can’t leave. I have a family here, I can’t abandon Ellie… Neal…”

“No I don’t
expect you to, but listen. You’re the one that’s caught Neal, twice. You know
how he thinks, besides, I think that he’s been captured or something, because
he wouldn’t leave me, not again, not without saying goodbye.”

“What? When did
he go missing?”

“He’s been gone
for two weeks, I’ve searched everywhere. He could be anywhere by now. I’m
afraid for him, Peter”.

Mozzie just
called Peter his actual name. Things must be bad. The thought of Neal being
alive was too hard to process, too shocking. Peter couldn’t think rationally-
his partner in crime was still alive. Not
dead.

Peter rose from
the kitchen table. Alex Hunter had been right- Neal was alive, but question
was; how? But what concerned him most was that Neal was missing.

Obviously Peter
was mad at Neal for faking his death, but he would need to put those feelings
away for a little while. Peter could punch Neal later.

Peter walked
around the living room and started asking questions like; ‘when was the last
time you saw him Mozzie?’ ‘So after all this time he’s been drinking Mojitos on
beaches? No Mozzie, I know that Paris isn’t in Spain.’ Or ‘I’m gonna kill him’,
(which he muttered staring at the ceiling rolling his eyes.)

Peter ended the
call, wanting to be pissed at Neal, he even considered leaving Neal in whatever
hellhole he was staying in, but his gut told him that Neal was in real trouble.

Peter couldn’t
believe himself that he was actually considering it, but hell, he was.

Peter needed to
go to Paris.

He needed to
hunt down Neal.

To assure Ellie
that everything was fine and that he needed to leave for Paris for a few days
and leave her and their one year old was so much tougher than Peter thought.

Ellie asked a
lot of question, obviously, and Peter avoided every single one of them with Neal’s
unique technic where he answered every question with another question.

It wasn’t like
he wouldn’t tell Ellie later, he just needed to go to Paris and investigate- he
needed to confirm that Neal was actually alive and not a part of Mozzie’s vivid
imagination.

Peter packed his
bag, and he said his goodbye’s as he got into his plane.

Neal wouldn’t
get away with this, not again.

Every fiber in
Mozzie’s body was screaming that involving ‘suits’ was one hell of a stupid
idea. But did Mozzie listen to the screams? Of course not. Mozzie needed to
find Neal, he didn’t know what the hell he had gotten himself into, but he was
going to find out. So Mozzie waited patiently at the café where he would meet
Peter in open public. If Peter had kept his promise, then he hadn’t involved
the rest of the FBI, at least not yet.

At noon Peter
appeared among the many figures walking down the street- to Mozzie’s
misfortune, he did not look happy.

Peter sat down
in front of Mozzie who was sipping a mojito, probably on purpose to annoy him.

“Mozzie, if what
you’re saying is true-“

“It is.”

“”-Then I’m
technically committing a federal crime by not telling the bureau about the not
dead conman lurking around the streets.”

“Yes, we’ve a
great influence on you.” Peter tried not to grunt at least.

“Mozzie, I do
believe you, about Neal being a real pain in the- by faking his death. Either
way, I need you to tell me everything he’s been doing lately, and does he have
a place?”

Mozzie told him
about Neal meeting Kate, which obviously blew Peter’s mind. Wherever that girl
went problems followed. No but Neal’s disappearance started to make more sense,
somehow.

“How did Neal
react to the news about Kate being alive?” Peter asked while drinking his
French coffee he had ordered. Mozzie sighed, and started folding something of a
napkin.

“He was
surprised, shocked at first, obviously, but then he seemed genially happy. I
mean, just imagine your dead girlfriend coming back from the dead.”

“I’d be
terrified,” Peter said, finishing his coffee.

“Okay Mozzie,
could you take me to his place?”

Neal’s place was
real nice and tidy, Peter even got jealous, again.
He was a hardworking man with a high ranked job and still he couldn’t
afford to live in a loft like this. Peter walked over to Neal’s wine collection
and he didn’t need more evidence to know that Neal was really alive. Alive and
missing.

Peter walked
around the loft and tried to think what had happened to him.

“Okay, so he
went out on a dinner with Kate, and then he didn’t return, right?”

Mozzie
considered telling Peter everything but
that would not be the smartest plan of them all; to admit to Peter that Neal
and him had stolen the actual Mona-Lisa, and then that Kate had wanted it all
along. There was no way that Mozzie was going to tell Peter that. Besides, he
didn’t look good in orange jumpsuits…

“Mozzie,” Peter
called from the living room and Mozzie followed his voice. Peter stood in the
living room holding jars of the three prime colors. He looked at the jars and
then back at Mozzie.

“Do I want to
know?” Mozzie shook his head quickly.

“Most defiantly
not.” Peter placed the jars back on the table.

“Okay, but only
because I couldn’t find any recent theft’s in Paris, I will let this one go.”
Mozzie nodded. Yep, he was most defiantly not telling him.

“I think that
I’ve got everything I need, Mozzie, I will need you to show me which restaurant
Neal went to with Kate.” Mozzie raised his eyebrows.

“You don’t think
that I’ve already gone there and gotten the security tapes of that night?”
Peter arched his brows.

“I really don’t
want to know.”

Mozzie gestured
with his hand to follow him and they went to the sofa and Mozzie took his
laptop and then he put in a USB.

“I’ve already
watched it, there’s nothing here.” Peter gestured him to be quiet, took the
laptop and then he watched the whole tape of that night. Kate came in to the
restaurant with Neal at 22:01. They started eating at 22:27 and then they
talked until 23:07. Then Kate rose at 23:08 holding out her hand until 23:09
where Neal took her hand and then she smiled. At 23:10 they left the restaurant
and they took Kate’s car.

“The registration
number was invalid; my program couldn’t find any results. But, I managed to
follow the street cameras, it took a while, but they went to this building,
Mozzie said pointing at the picture. The picture was of an old tall building,
there were guards with guns in front of the building. Peter looked at the
screen and watched as Kate and Neal exited the car, and Neal looked around the
streets. He said something, misfortune for Peter he could not read lips.
Besides, the quality of the tape was too bad for Peter to even try. Neal
started walking towards the building holding Kate’s hand, but then he stopped
under a street light and Peter could see Neal’s face clearly. Neal looked a
little out of it, and suddenly he looked into the camera. His expression was
rigid, but unreadable. Kate started dragging him forwards and he followed her
into the building, and they bypassed the guards.

“Wait a
second.” Mozzie said as he paused the
tape quickly and then he ripped the laptop out of Peter’s grip. He backed a few
frames and then he zoomed in the picture. He took a screen shoot of the frame
and then he started doing things in Photoshop that was beyond Peter’s
knowledge.

“There!” Mozzie
exclaimed pointing at the picture.

Neal and Kate
had just excited the vehicle and you could see by the weak light that the
street lamp casted that she pressed something that looked a lot like a needle
into Neal’s arm. The deed was nearly impossible to see.

“How could I
have missed this?” Mozzie questioned himself loudly as he went back to the
video. Kate injected Neal with something and then he said something, there
after he stopped by the light and looked into the camera. Maybe it wasn’t a
coincidence.

“What if it was
a cry for help?” Peter muttered.

“What was?”

“Neal, when he
looks directly at the camera, directly at us.” Mozzie seemed to realize that
too.

“But why would
she do this? Mozzie, is there any security tape of them exiting the building?”
Mozzie shook sadly his head.

“I think that
the street cameras have been hacked because they never exit the building, from
any other angle ever. Although-“ Peter looked curiously at Mozzie.

“Although?”

“Their fire wall
is too hard core, it’d take me 30 days to get through it. But, there’s another
way.” Peter shook his head and rose from the couch. Mozzie wasn’t really
suggesting what he thought he was?

“Peter, we need
to get inside the building. Unfortunaly, as you see the video, the building is
surrounded with guards with guns. I don’t do guns. And it’s not a one-man job. Come
on Peter.” Mozzie just asked Peter to infiltrate a building with armed men.
Unbelievable, Peter sighed.

“We do need the
tapes if we’re supposed to find Neal- but there’s another way Mozzie.” Mozzie
gestured him to keep talking. Peter just fished out his FBI certification from
his pocket and Mozzie smiled, Peter had a plan.

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